During her many years as a resident of Manchester, Sarah Given Larson was known for her quiet and effective generosity to a great many non-profits and schools. Mrs. Larson was a dedicated supporter of the Manchester Historical Society and many of her photographs taken in the 1950 and 1960s are now part of the MHS collection.

Loveland Munson Society

$1,000-2,499

Over the course of his distinguished career, Manchester native Loveland Munson (1843-1921) was lawyer, member of the Vermont House and Senate, and both an associate judge and the chief judge of the Vermont Supreme Court. He was also a gifted writer and sometime editor of the Manchester Journal. In 1875, he delivered a speech on the early history of Manchester at the Music Hall on Union Street which ended with. “…the life of the most favored individual is brief when compared with the probable duration of the community of which he is a part. We who now compose the corporate body will soon pass away, but the municipality may fulfill her thousand years. In that distant future, the space which separates us from the days of settlement will seem as nothing, and we who now commemorate the early history of the town will ourselves be reckoned among its early inhabitants.”

Louise Simonds Orvis Circle

$500-999

Louise Simonds (1874-1953) married George Orvis, a son of Franklin Orvis, following her graduation from Burr and Burton Seminary in 1890. After his death in 1917, she took charge of running the Equinox House and in 1925 hired Walter J. Travis to design the new golf course for the Equinox Links Club. She was the first woman to vote in Manchester and was for many years president of Manchester Village.

Walter Hard Club

$250-499

Walter Hard (1882-1966), a fifth-generation member of a Batten Kill Valley family, left Williams College in 1903 before graduating to take over his father’s drugstore business. In 1928 he published Some Vermonters, “a collection of Yankee characters” in verse. His nine volumes of poetry were marked by unrhymed lines and broken rhythms, which he likened to the Vermont landscape. Critic Louis Untermeyer ranked Hard among the historic best of New England poets. In 1935, he and his author-wife Margaret sold the drugstore, and became proprietors of the Johnny Appleseed Bookstore, which they ran for thirty years in the historic Orvis store building beside the Equinox Hotel. He also served five terms in the Vermont legislature.

Sarah Cleghorn Associates

$100-249

“She was a poet, an educator – and a reformer.” With these simple words, written in the introduction to her memoirs Threescore, the poet Robert Frost summed up the life work of his friend Sarah Cleghorn, the only Manchester resident to appear in Bartlett’s Quotations. Sarah Cleghorn became quite well known for her passionate devotion to socialism, pacifism, experimental education and the abolition of capital punishment. She was that rarest of utopians – one who seriously lived by the principles she believed in and cherished her entire life.

Falcomb “Fred” Nickelwhite Friends

Up to $99

Fred Nicklewhite was a master tailor who lived for many years in Manchester Village and is buried in Dellwood Cemetery. Among his clients were many notable visitors who vacationed at the Equinox Hotel and in the Village’s summer cottages. He is fondly remembered by all who knew him as a gentle and unassuming man who loved jazz and was proud of his enduring friendships with many jazz greats, including Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway.

Corporate Sponsorship Giving Levels 2017-2018

We invite local companies to become annual corporate sponsors. For your annual gift you will receive the benefits outlined below. We are very grateful for your support.

Union Club

$250+

Your company name in MHS quarterly newsletters

Your company name and logo in all E-newsletters

Donor Privacy Policy

Manchester Historical Society, a 501(c)3 organization, does not share or sell any of its donor information. Information is gathered through voluntary submission to our organization, and is used only for our fundraising activities. We abide by the policy of removing any donor who no longer wishes to receive material from our organization if they express this wish by telephone, email, or mail. All donor mailing and donation history information is securely stored and not made accessible online.

About MHS

The mission of the Manchester Historical Society is to collect, preserve, interpret and present the story of Manchester, Vermont, through the research collection, exhibitions, programs, and publications.